


Plans are useless, unless you know what to expect

by Balthuza



Category: Shards of the Sun
Genre: Gen, Idiots, Like, flick cannot handle nature, really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 09:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9378662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balthuza/pseuds/Balthuza
Summary: The plan was simple enough. Step one - catch a ride to another city. Step two - disappear before the news reach the family and they drag her back. Step three was to create a masterpiece and go back home in glory.Step three was proving to be problematic.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liryczna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liryczna/gifts).



The plan was simple enough. Step one - catch a ride to another city. Few gold coins and her name took care of that and just before the dawn she was on a cart going to Hamfarum. Surrounded by fabrics and the smell of spices, she fell asleep and woke up only as the cart stopped. Step two - disappear before the news reach the family and they drag her back. She bought a dinner, a map and a bedroll, quite proud of her strategic planning, and set off towards another closest city on foot.

Step three was to create a masterpiece and go back home in glory.  
Step three was proving to be problematic.

First of all, there wasn’t a road in sight. To her surprise, the map didn’t mark the main tracks. It marked all of them, and what she was following was a line being a part of an artistic approximation of a mountain. Sadly it took her almost six hours to realise that the only thing hiding behind the trees was, in fact, more trees. Thankfully she managed to get turned enough times to finally end up by the river and return to the city by the nightfall. In the morning, armed with the newfound knowledge that apparently nature is much bigger than it seems and way less organised than it should be, she found a small fisher’s boat and offered the owner two gold pieces in exchange for a ride and silence, with some amusement seeing human’s eyes go round at the amount of money offered. 

It took her nearly whole day to reach the plains, even with the owner and his son rowing with all their might, making the boat sway uncomfortably all the way. While the boat was disappearing on the horizon, Flick realised another problem with her plan as soon as she looked around. 

There was nothing. Even trees weren’t as numerous as before. Still, the fisher pointed her in the direction of Nearon, apparently few days ahead.  
It took her another few hours to realise the sun is not a good landmark to follow. 

When the sun started to set, a new set of problems appeared. First of all, she had no firewood. Second of all, she had no blanket. Third of all, she had no idea where to get either of them. While the trees seemed to be a pretty straightforward source of wood, they also proved to be rather unwilling to part with it. Armed only with her dagger and her magic, Flick had very moderate success in gathering barely enough sticks to set them aflame. Her Unseen Servant managed to drag a small mountain of leaves, which was only to be expected. Sitting way too close to the fire than she probably should, with her eyes tearing up because of the amount of smoke moist wood and leaves produced, she regretted many things. 

Mostly, her own stupidity.  
Also, trying to cook her rations over the fire.

Which, admittedly did fit into the main regret of the night. 

Somehow, she managed to almost fall asleep when there was a noise somewhere behind her. She froze for a second, mentally cataloguing what lives in the Nature. Unhelpfully, her mind listed 46 different kinds of bananas, 4 kinds of trees and a very vague picture of a badger she’s seen in the Academy’s library. 

She had no idea how big can a badger be.

The noise stopped, and a large hand touched softly her arm.

Flick screamed a bloody murder and fired a spell.

~~

‘I’d be sorry, but really, it was your fault’ was the first thing she said when it seemed like the man was conscious again. Then she repeated it again, when he looked at her without understanding. Then again. He squinted. She gave up. ‘Food?’ she asked, seeming like she wanted to make a gesture to her, bit burned, ration, then thought better of it. The half-elf finally snapped out of it. Privately Flick decided that it was probably the smell of burned food that did it. 

“Are you alright? What are you doing here alone?” He was looking at her now with more clarity and she realised that she must indeed look quite a sight with makeup smeared all over her face, hair full of leaves and dust, and eyes still full of tears. 

Using all her willpower, she refrained from checking the state of her clothes and shoes.

While she was busy with self-examination, he managed to sit up and look around.   
“I thought there were goblins here, people mentioned they’re bit of a problem. The column of smoke worried them.” He looked questioningly at the pile of leaves next to the fire, and at the twigs burning already. The wind changed for a moment and sent a cloud of smoke right in their faces. “Did the rest of you went out to gather wood? Unless’ he snorted, ‘ you were going to burn those leaves?”

Flick fixed him a dead stare. ‘What, you have a problem with that? They burn well.’ He looked at her skeptically. 

“I can see that, yes.” He extended his hand. ‘I’m Fyr.’ In Flick’s head, she heard her mother’s rant about politeness and manners and almost flinched.  
“Flick. Nice to meet you. I suppose.”

~~

It took them almost whole night to get back - while the darkness was not a problem for either, Flick’s absolute lack of ability to travel in woods, as well as her height, made an apparently straightforward walk into a hassle. On the way Flick could swear she heard Fyr snort a few times, but whenever she turned to glare at him, he seemed to be fully concentrated on the road ahead. She didn’t buy it for a second. 

“So” started Fyr after Flick stumbled again over a root she should’ve seen coming a mile away. “What exactly were you doing in the middle of a forest?” He kept looking ahead, pretending not to see Flick’s suspicious look. 

“I am a herbalist. Looking for rare plants.” Watching him out of the corner of her eye, she could see him just nodding. Then the knowledge that he probably just saved her from a whole lot of Nature poked her between the ribs with a stick of guilt. “No, sorry, that was a lie. I messed up something. I’m trying to fix it.” She folded her arms defensively and looked aside, almost immediately falling over. 

“Yeah, I know how that feels.” She looked at him skeptically. Fyr shrugged. Neither of them asked about specifics, or talked at all until they saw faint outlines of buildings between the trees, but the silence became a bit less awkward than before.


End file.
